Has anybody ventured into the large screen remotes yet? I've seen the Harmony 1100 in the stores and have seen the Elan in action, a very neat remote. I really like our Harmony 880 but the buttons and screen can really get small after a while.

Harmony 1100

Elan Home Systems

Any others that y'all may recommend taking a look-see?

Get some bifocals old man

I do, matter of fact I just picked up a pair of new glasses the other day. Lost mine a week back whenever we were looking at some fields from a helicopter, thought I dropped them out of the door and they were gone forever ... one of the workers found them in the grass where we parked the helicopter a couple of days ago, of course this was after I spent $800 on a new prescription pair of glasses and prescription sunglasses.

Now I have three pair and still have a hard time seeing the screen on the 880.

I like my lasik vision.

That would have bought onehellofa remote.

Optomogolist explained to me that lasik wouldn't do me any good, I have good distant eyesight and the lasik would give up some of that for a "little" more reading ability.

I needed my glasses and prescription updated anyway Rick, it's been about three years since last exam.

I am dreading the day I have to get glasses and it is fast approaching, smaller print on signs and some TV shows is getting a little blurry Maybe I can use that to justify buying the bigger TV sooner

I had excellent vision 20-10 in both eyes until I hit about 45. Then the change seemed so sudden that I thought I had a brain tumor.....the Opthamologist says he hears the tumor story a lot. He told me "just be happy you lasted until you were 45"....

I had my eyes start going bad @ 39 and every year the bifocals get stronger

SO that I can carry on with my hobbies, I now wear contacts for long distance and my wife's favorite expression "Cheaters" for reading or up close work. Every year and a half or so I have to up the strength of the "Cheaters". I have a buddy that I Turkey hunt with - his eyesight is so bad that last year when he had a Tom come in to his decoys, he blew the head off his decoy by mistake.....

That would be me, but not suddenly, I noticed a deterioration in my sight when I was 38(?). I will be 43 this year and I suspect by 45 I will have to get some glasses .

lets see, we all look at these forums, hmmm, maybe we need to get out more.

I now know it was gradual - at 40 I was laying with my head inside a cabinet and was going to tighten a screw. I saw that it was defective because there were no slots for the Philips head. When pulled out and looked at it, the slots were there. After puzzling for a minute, I realized my close up vision must be going. Then at 45, I would look at something like a distant vulture against the blue sky and I would see it double. That is when I thought I had a tumor. The contacts cleared that up - so moral of the story - before you sell the farm, see an Opthomologist....

I just bought reading glasses yesterday!

At least they were the weakest available!

Just 2 1/2 yrs ago when I worked in the M/C shop, I was the go-to guy when someone caught a splinter or metal shaving in the eye because my eyesight was the best in the shop(30 guys). Here we are now(I'm 45) and my eyesight has gone downhill rapidly...I blamed this mostly to increased computer useage, but I guess by the mid 40s, people seem to start noticing poorer vision.

You hunt with Cheney? Wow!

Duck!

No, really!! DUCK!

I agree with everyone above, the Harmony 1100 looks really nice.


What is this, an old folks home, pep up gents. You can't let a decent post get hijacked by gout and the damn kids down the hall before anyone even mentions the remote question. Jeez. Come back to the light guys...

In other words, I like my H 890 pretty good. But for a step up to a table remote, I'd want the customization options the H's rob you of. Plus, RF should be included.

I really like the looks of this and the previous Harmony 1000, but I really think I'd miss the hard buttons on my current remote.

I can operate it strictly be feel, and with that one, I'd have to keep looking at it to find my way around.

Wait.

I'm still talking remotes, right???

My Opthamologist also told me that increased computer usage will be a contributor to poor vision. She mentioned that when staring at a computer monitor our eyes do not blink enough to keep them lubricated, causing eye strain. Also, 45 is the magic number for reading glasses

About 43 or 44 was the magic number for me. In the past I had always prided myself with exceptional eyesight but noticed whenever I was traveling a lot the road signs were getting more and more difficult to read at night and it has progressively gone down hill since ... I don't have a clue how Jack and Ray do it.
Having the proper glasses makes a world of difference also, during my week tenure of complete loss of eyewear I resorted to an old pair of prescription sunglasses that I never wore because they just funked up my vision in a weird way but I decided to try them out last Friday at work and the first pass on the first load I went to dive into a field of snap beans to spray and I hit the ground with my wheels and ran through the beans for about 50-75' while the entire time I would have sworn I was at least three feet off the crop. Those happen to be the very same sunglasses that are in the shop as we speak getting the new lenses.

Remotes ... oh yea.

Just an hour or so ago I stopped by the A/V place where we bought our TV a few years back to take a look at the Elan wireless 8" screen remote, the salesman said "The Elan remotes are a little on the pricy side ... here let me show you this little gem", he showed me a Philips TSU9400 touch screen remote that was very nice and I really started checking out the capabilities of the remote. I really liked this remote 'How much?', "1800", 'Dollars??' "Yep" ... 'I'll get back with you'. I got back to the house and see they go from $529 online, amazing.

Philips TSU9400

I also stopped by BB and checked out the Harmony 1100 again, for a few bucks more (online) I believe the Philips is a much better remote

What? Mark, now you are buying weak crap??? Dude, break down and buy quality!

Yah Mark, get some coke bottles!!

He will ... eventually.

Coke bottles.

I had an older version of that Pronto, the Pronto Neo. It was great in concept, but was a bit to early in the technology. It was the little brother to the big boy Pronto but had many of the features. The biggest difference was screen size, and that was a real issue. It is almost all touch driven and on mine, it was hard to use sometimes. I liked it because it was very cool at the time, and you can customize it on the computer, but ultimately the H 890 is much easier to use.

I'm not saying stay away from this one, as it is several generations newer, just check it out first. A friend of mine had the same one as me and he absolutely hated the form and function. So opinions vary.

This is what happens whenever you wear the wrong glasses ... Whoa.


I'm liking the looks of the Harmony 1100 Zimm, I've just never been a fan of touch screen technology. I do want to get a remote with RF capabilities, our Harmony 880 gets confused whenever I programmed the remotely controlled dimming lights. The equipment uses interconnected IR emitters and the remote dimmer doesn't, whenever I had the lights programmed into the 880 either the equipment would turn off or the lights wouldn't function due to the different locations of the IR eyes. I'm thinking RF will solve that issue.

Since I'm "bitten" already, I just now ordered the 1100 from amazon with the free rf extender for about $418 shipped. It will be here tomorrow!

Anybody need an 880?

Good deal Doug, let us know how it works out for you. That 880 is a nice remote, it will make somebody a happy person.

get the mx 980 Rick. Killer remote....

PS: i hope you can still see those power lines when you're buzzing around.

Wow....I've never been involved with a thread hijack before...of course it seems that there is a battle in the cockpit. The thread keeps going back and forth from Universal Remotes to Myopic concerns....

Wait, you've got 82 posts, and you've never been in a thread jack?

I have been a passenger but never an active participant....anyway back to the remote question. I actually have 2 different strength contact lenses.....

I have been surprised with how well the RF function works on the 890. I can sit on the deck outside and adjust volume and sound source on the second zone without a hiccup. And if yours is an IR repeater problem, that should take care of it. And the $400 price is sweet.

As my wife says 'get in the car, shut up about my driving and hang on!'

The 1100 arrived and is in the charger until 8.

More later....

Mike do you know if the MX remotes are sold in the brick and mortar stores? The only apprehension I'd have with the MX 980 from looking online is that it *seems* to be similar in size to my current Harmony which I'd like to replace with a larger screen. I'd really like to take a personal look at the remote prior to buying.

Zimm I do believe the RF will probably solve my issue with the different IR eyes located around the room, that Amazon deal that Doug just bought looks likes it's going to be hard to beat ... our local Best Buy has the 1100 priced at $499 and the RF extender is an additional $99, but of course they are always outrageously overpriced with their stuff anyway.

Rick,

The 980 can not be bought on-line. It is in URC’s “professional” line and they do not allow internet sales. You can find them on-line, but time after time, folks buy them on-line to only find out that they can not get the software.

What I like about it, other than no-shit unlimited programmability, you can custom tailor the screen, button style, color, size, font size, display brightness, and on, and on, and on….. It has a very steep learning curve, but if I can figure it out, anyone can. URC basically took their MX 3000 and put it I a hand held remote. It is not cheap though. If you have your heart set on a BIG remote, the MX3000 may be worth a look. I don’t like them because they take two hands to use, but seeing how you are getting up there in years and loosing your eyesight, you’ll probably get the shakes pretty soon and need two hands anyway…..

After having three URC programmable remotes that don’t use one of those silly ‘wizards’, I’ll never buy another that can’t be programmed with the computer how I want it, and not what someone thinks I want.

I buy all my remotes from Surf Remote. Give Mike a call and he'll hook you up (just not the 980). He sells many different brands and always has pretty good prices, plus excellent support.

Thanks Mike, I did go to their site and I'll call Mike this afternoon whenever I get home from work.

Not a large screen, I think, but something useful from Harmony, maybe, for PS3 owners who might be wary of third party add-ons to make their remotes work.

Too early to tell if it even handles on and off codes as that is an extra challenge with PS3 but I'd like to think it might.

Mike I made the call, got a MX-980 and an MRF-350 on it's way.

Whenever my wife finds out how much I spent on the remote and extender YOU my man are going to be in big T-R-O-U-B-L-E.